The Youth’s Instructor

April 20, 1899

The Resurrection of Lazarus

Part 4.

EGW

The cries of the mourners prevented Martha's words from being heard. On hearing the message, Mary rose hastily, and with an eager look on her face, left the room. Thinking that she had gone to the grave to weep, the mourners followed her. When she reached the place where Jesus was waiting, she knelt at his feet, and said, with quivering lips, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” The noise made by the mourners was painful to her; for she longed for a few quiet words alone with Jesus. But she knew of the envy and jealousy cherished in the hearts of some present against Christ, and she was restrained from fully expressing her grief. YI April 20, 1899, par. 1

“When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled.” He read the hearts of all assembled. He saw that with many, what was looked upon as a demonstration of grief, was only pretense. He knew that some in the company, now manifesting hypocritical sorrow, would erelong be planning the death, not only of the mighty miracle-worker, but of the one to be raised from the dead. There were tender hearts in the throng, but there were also hypocrites. These pretended to manifest grief, but their hearts were full of malignity. Christ could have stripped from them their robe of pretended sorrow; he could have revealed their real sentiments. But he restrained his righteous indignation. The words that he could in all truth have spoken, he did not speak, because of the loved one kneeling at his feet in sorrow, who truly believed in him. YI April 20, 1899, par. 2

“Where have ye laid him?” he asked. “They said unto him, Lord, come and see.” Together they proceeded to the grave. It was a mournful scene. Lazarus had been much beloved, and his sisters wept for him with breaking hearts, while those who had been his friends mingled their tears with those of the bereaved sisters. In view of this human distress, and of the fact that the afflicted friends could mourn over the dead while the Saviour of the world stood by, who had power to raise from the dead, “Jesus wept.” Though he was the Son of God, he had taken human nature upon him, and he was moved by human sorrow. His tender, pitiful heart is ever awakened to sympathy by suffering. He weeps with those who weep, and rejoices with those who rejoice. YI April 20, 1899, par. 3

But it was not only because of his human sympathy with Mary and Martha, that Jesus wept. There was in his tears a sorrow as high above human sorrow as the heavens are higher than the earth. Christ did not weep for Lazarus; for he was about to call him from the grave. He wept because those now united with Mary in mourning for Lazarus would soon plan the death of him who was the resurrection and the life. But how unable were the unbelieving Jews rightly to interpret his tears! Some, who could see nothing more than the outward circumstances of the scene before him as a cause for his grief, said, softly, “Behold how he loved him!” Others, seeking to drop the seed of unbelief in the hearts of those present, said, derisively, “Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?” If it was in Christ's power to save Lazarus, why did he suffer him to die? YI April 20, 1899, par. 4

With prophetic eye Christ saw the enmity of the Pharisees and Sadducees. He knew that they were premeditating his death. He was the Son of the infinite God; and yet, a victim to Jewish hatred and infatuation, he was soon to be laid in the grave. In three days he was to rise, thus becoming for all “the resurrection and the life;” but the power to give men life was to be gained by passing through death. And at his death few save the disciples would weep over their disappointed hopes. YI April 20, 1899, par. 5

Mrs. E. G. White